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Year 4 Levers and linkages: interactive books worksheet

“Reverse motion linkages” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 4 design and technology unit “Levers and linkages: interactive books”, for children aged 8 to 9, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 1 to 8 of the year, 8 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Reverse motion linkages

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 4 · Design & technology · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can explain how a reverse motion linkage makes its output move the opposite way.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which part of a lever stays still while the bar turns?
pivotloadhandle
2.
Which fixing joins two card strips but still lets them turn? Circle the answer.
split pingluesticky tape
3.
Which material is stiff enough to make a linkage strip?
card from a cereal boxtissue papera cotton sock

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ali has built a card linkage. The long strip is pinned in the middle with a split pin. Ali pushes one short strip left.

Watch me

The pivot in the middle stays fixed.

Push the input end left.

The output end moves right, the opposite way.

Now you

1.
Push the input end down. Which way does the output end go? Circle one.
updownleftright

C Your turn6 min

Each linkage has a fixed pivot in the middle. Look at the input, then circle the output.

1.
Push the input end left. Which way does the output end go? Circle one.
leftright
2.
Push the input end right. Which way does the output end go? Circle one.
leftright
3.
Push the input end up. Which way does the output end go? Circle one.
updown
4.
The two arms are the same length. The input moves 3 cm left. The output moves cm right.

Say it out loud: What do you notice about the output every time? Is it ever the same way as the input?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A pair of metal tweezers lying beside a small bead on a plate

Ali says: “Every lever lets you push less hard, so tweezers take less squeeze than bare fingers.”

1.
Is Ali right? Write one reason in your own words.

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Ali moves the fixed pivot closer to the output end. Which way does the output move now, and does it move further or less far? Explain.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Reverse motion linkages · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. pivot

2. split pin

3. card from a cereal box

B

1. up

C

1. right Writing left means they think both ends move the same way. Ask them to push a real strip and watch the far end.

2. left

3. down Writing up means they copied the input. Ask them to rest a ruler on one finger, push one end up, and watch the far end.

4. 3 Writing 6 means they added 3 and 3. The output moves the same distance as the input, so the answer is 3.

D

1. Look for: Says no: with tweezers your fingers squeeze harder than the tips grip, but tweezers give finer control of small things. Saying yes means they think every lever cuts effort. Tweezers need a harder squeeze, but they give fine control of tiny things.

E

1. Look for: Says the output still moves the opposite way but a shorter distance, because it is now nearer the pivot.

Words to use

Say“Show me with your hands which way the far end moved when you pushed the near end.”

Instead of“Yes, you know this already, just read the answer out.”

After the sheet

Build a linkage together: a grown-up cuts two 8 cm strips and one 15 cm strip from cereal box card, then the child joins them with split pins and tests the push.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

7 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Linkages that move together(with a plan)
Turning corners with linkages(with a plan)
Choosing the right linkage(with a plan)
Finding out what users need(with a plan)
Cutting is shaping too(with a plan)
Gaps that let things move(with a plan)
Testing and evaluating my book(with a plan)

Every Year 4 design and technology worksheet

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